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A TV cooking show is a television program that presents the preparation of food, in a kitchen on the studio set. The host of the show, usually a celebrity chef, prepares one or more dishes over the course of the show, taking the viewing audience through the food's preparation showing all intermediate stages of cooking. These shows are often intended to be at least partly educational, as the host teaches the viewing audience how to prepare different meals with each episode of the show; though some cooking shows (such as Iron Chef) are intended simply for entertainment.

While rarely achieving top ratings, cooking shows have been a popular staple of daytime TV programming since the earliest days of television. [1] They are generally very inexpensive to produce, making them an economically easy way for a TV station to fill a half-hour (or sometimes 60 minute) TV episode.

A number of cooking shows have run for many seasons, especially when they are sponsored by local TV stations or by public broadcasting. Many of the more popular cooking shows have had flamboyant hosts whose unique personalities have made them into celebrities.

Famous cooking shows include:

La cocina de Karlos Arguiñano (Karlos Arguiñano) 30 Minute Meals (Rachael Ray) America's Test Kitchen Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) Capital Cooking (Lauren DeSantis) Celebrity Cooks Chim Pai Bon Pai (Samak Sundaravej) The Cookin' Cajun David Rocco's Dolce Vita Dining Downunder (Vic Cherikoff and Benjamin Christie) Emeril Live (Emeril Lagasse) "Mexico: One Plate at a Time" with Rick Bayless New Scandinavian Cooking The F-Word (Gordon Ramsay) The French Chef (Julia Child) The Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith)

The Galloping Gourmet Good Eats (Alton Brown) Great Chefs Hell's Kitchen (Gordon Ramsay) Hell's Kitchen (US) (Gordon Ramsay) Hippy Gourmet Iron Chef Iron Chef America The Naked Chef (Jamie Oliver) Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (Gordon Ramsey) Ready Steady Cook Top Chef Two Fat Ladies Wok with Yan (Stephen Yan) Yan Can Cook (Martin Yan) So Good

The cable TV channel Food Network has showcased many cooking shows.

[edit] External links

• 2009 podcast interview with cooking show historian Kathleen Collins at The Bat Segundo Show